Neptunes Grimaldi 7 San Giljan Crystal Finance 8
(1-0, 2-1, 1-4, 3-3)
Neptunes suffered their second defeat in four days, after their President’s Cup loss. Once more they did the early running, this time going on a double advantage till the interval, when their defence managed to shut out their adversaries, who also failed in their first four man ups.
After the break it was a different affair. The Saints were more incisive, and the champions were with their backs to the wall. San Giljan’s two foreigners, the Serbian, Boris Vapenski, and the Spaniard, Guillermo Molina, were in the thick of the action, as the Saints overturned the adverse score, and forged in front.
The last session had Neptunes falling further behind, with San Giljan making sure some time before the end of the match, even though Neptunes made a commendable efoort to save the match. They crawled back to just a goal behind, but time was against them, with only seconds left on the time clock.
The Camilleri brothers, Steve and Jordan, along with Michele Stellini, all scored twice for the champions. The Saints also had Vapenski, Molina and Aurelien Cousin, now playing as a local, with a double strike. It was interesting to see that both Neptunes’ foreigners, Croatian, Ivan Krapic, and Hungarian, Peter Biros, failed to score.
Neptunes converted four times from their nine man ups. The Saints, after their first four failures, went on to score just twice from a total of seven extra player occasions. It will surely rankle Neptunes, to lose two games in a row, and at the start of the Summer league, after their Winter league success, where they managed to pip the same San Giljan to the title.
Neptunes: A. Borg Cole, N. Lanzon 1, J. Abela, M. Stellini 2, T. Agius , I. Krapic , S. Camilleri2 , J. Camilleri 2, M. Castillo, P. Biros , B. Lanzon, S. Xerri de Caro, C. Mercieca
San Giljan: J. Sammut, P. Borg, A. Galea, B. Vapenski 2, G. Molina 2, M. Zammit 1, K. Galea, Da. Zammit, B. Plumpton, A. Cousin 2, P. Fava, Di. Zammit 1, D. Spiteri
Referees: M. Angileri, M. Bianchi
Source: www.independent.com.mt